Today's Fantasy Rx

Internet Challenge

After significant debate, we opted to open with an identical roster to our Diamond Challenge team. While taking a cheaper starter such as Bronson Arroyo would give us additional flexibility, we like our team a lot, and with Shawn Chacon an even better play here than in DC since we can sit him whenever he pitches at home, we at least own one inexpensive pitcher. We also considered Todd Helton, but given his lofty salary and mostly weak supporting cast, he just doesn't look like a great value in 5x5 games.

SP(6)
Pedro Martinez: Sun:@BAL(S.Ponson)
Curt Schilling: Tue:@BAL(E.DuBose)
Randy Johnson: Tue:COL(S.Estes)
Mike Mussina: Tue:@TB(V.Zambrano)
Roy Halladay: Mon:DET(J.Johnson)
Tim Hudson: Mon:TEX(K.Rogers)
Javier Vazquez: Thu:CHW(S.Schoeneweis)
Roy Oswalt: Mon:SF(K.Rueter)
Kerry Wood: Mon:@CIN(C.Lidle)
Kevin Brown: Wed:@TB(P.Abbott)
Josh Beckett: Tue:MON(L.Hernandez)
Shawn Chacon: 3 Road at ARI.

No starts: Contreras.

Benching Pedro is a ridiculously easy choice as we're not even certain that last night's game will count in IC. While we'd like to run Vazquez, we also don't want to run the risk of bad weather on Thursday in New York, leaving us with Randy, Halladay, Hudson, and Chacon as the safest bets. While selecting the other home starts is the logical bet, we like Schilling's start a lot, so we'll run him, along with Oswalt, who faces a safer match-up than Beckett.

On our bench, we certainly will sit Carl Crawford since he only plays two games, and Ichiro and Preston Wilson also don't look like strong plays this week. With Fullmer and Crede on the road, they're logical options to keep out of our lineup for now.

The Umpire Hunter(No standings)
Week 1a: April 4-April 8

C	Jason Varitek		680
C	Matt LeCroy		480
1B	Mark Teixeira		760
1B	Josh Phelps		580
2B	Alfonso Soriano		1930
2B	Marcus Giles		990
3B	Eric Hinske		990
3B	Hank Blalock		850
SS	Alex Rodriguez		2010
SS	Rafael Furcal		1150
OF	Carlos Beltran		1760
OF	Juan Pierre		1470
OF	Vernon Wells		1150
OF	Carl Everett		880
OF	Adam Dunn		690
OF	Brad Wilkerson		690
DH	Miguel Cabrera		570
DH	Alex Cintron		450

SP	Curt Schilling		1610
SP	Randy Johnson		1550
SP	Roy Halladay		1350
SP	Tim Hudson		1320
SP	Roy Oswalt		1200
SP	Shawn Chacon		630
RP	Eric Gagne		1890
RP	David Riske		820
RP	Arthur Rhodes		800
RP	Matt Herges		670

Total Salary for Week 1a: 	29930

Diamond Challenge Notes

While we're quite pleased with our DC roster, a few other players earned consideration and almost made our roster. Our final two choices were taking Miguel Cabrera over Marlon Byrd and Josh Beckett over Brandon Webb. While Byrd should have a better BA than Cabrera, we expect almost everyone to run Cabrera, he offers superior power potential, he faces a better April schedule, and he costs less than Byrd. Beckett offers a lot more upside than Webb, pitches in a better park in front of a better defense, didn't struggle towards the end of 2003, and also will appear on more rosters than Webb, helping us limit any potential competitive disadvantage.

Mike Lieberthal was nearly a good a pick as Varitek at catcher. Neither ARod nor Furcal look like great values, however both at least should post decent overall numbers with good averages. While Carl Everett may not remain on our top into the second half, and we wish we had the option to take a healthy Nick Johnson, going with any Montreal position player, including Vidro, Orlando Cabrera, and Tony Batista, looks like a decent move.

Fantasy Baseball Notes

The toughest choice here involved our last starting spot, however Randy, who we considered leaving off our roster due to his salary and poor 2003. However, Randy offers more upside than perhaps any other pitcher, making him a slightly stronger pick than Roy Oswalt or Tim Hudson. Of course, if either of the latter starters impresses quickly, we might add them to our team by the end of the month.

Other than LeCroy, no catcher especially impressed us, though Phillips and Schneider at least are good values. Fullmer's strong projection nearly led us to take five first basemen here, however we reasoned we never could play all five at once, making at least one superfluous. Teixeira and Phelps were obvious picks, and then we omitted Fullmer to take Helton and Derrek Lee since we possess enough cap room to run a couple more expensive players. Lee is a good value and Helton should be a strong play at home.

Batista isn't a great choice at third, although at least his BA can't hurt us here. Crede was nearly as good a pick as Munson, and we similarly almost took Crosby in addition to Cintron; we just didn't feel comfortable including either player due to our early-season concerns regarding their respective performances.

We last chose Austin Kearns to fill out our bench, and if not for his terrible spring, we may have taken him on every CDM team. He at least possesses no downside in the points' games, although several other players, including Byrd, Richard Hidalgo, Melvin Mora, and Corey Patterson, also look like decent picks. The latter two similarly wouldn't have been bad DC choices, however we want to see how both players rebound from 2003 injuries before employing them in these games.

Today's Fantasy Rx: If you never have played either a CDM contest or a points-based game, we recommend signing up for Budget Baseball, which only costs $30 and includes all transactions free. The gameplay is identical to that of the relatively expensive Fantasy Baseball contest, yet the lack of transaction fees should make the game much more appealing to budget-conscious owners.